Monbulk Creek - 1:350 Scale Australian Narrow Gauge

[Sweet pea]

An absolutely brilliant layout, the scenery work is amazing with great depth of field. Thanks for sharing.

[AMoonRabbit]

On 23/05/2019 at 14:54, martink said:

Construction of this layout is now complete.  I'll make a proper video of it in the next few days.

 

 

 

 

I love what you've achieved with this, I feel like the scene of the rail over bridge on the centennial highway, Wellington New Zealand would be another nice project in this scale.

[martink]

23 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Could this system work for a 4mm scale wagon, to move it along a piece of conventional track?

I'm thinking of a short spur from a wagon turntable into a warehouse, with inlaid track.

E.g. Does the magnet need to be very, very close to the linear track?

 

It probably could be done that way, but it would be pushing things right to their limits.  The magnetic field from the track is very weak, and relies on having very powerful magnets in the train to compensate.  The gap between them has to very narrow, certainly no more than 1mm, so you would need a ramp along the center of the track or to embed the rails in a roadway.  Having that sort of magnet on a wagon that has to run on the rest of the layout can be problematic if your track passes over any nails or screws in the benchwork.  You would also need to run the thing at high power, so heating would be an issue (similar to keeping a point motor powered too long).

 

A simpler scheme would be to use a conventional electromagnet (perhaps from an uncoupler), and mount it on a motor-driven leadscrew, or perhaps just a permanent magnet on a drive belt (possibly using the Magnorail system).

 

I have used this track on a little test layout with lightweight plastic N scale cars, but that is about as far as I would push things.  It becomes more effective the smaller things become, down to a minimum model length of about 10mm (3x3mm magnets).   IDL Motors does have a video showing some HO scale models (well, toys) being propelled this way, but that uses a heftier track and a lot more power.

[martink]

11 hours ago, AMoonRabbit said:

 

I love what you've achieved with this, I feel like the scene of the rail over bridge on the centennial highway, Wellington New Zealand would be another nice project in this scale.

 

Being able to model not just the bridge, but enough of its surroundings to give it context, really makes a difference.

 

Have you seen what Doug Kightley has done in (conventional) T Gauge with his model of the Forth Bridge, and his new one of the Royal Albert and Tamar Bridges at Saltash?

[Stubby47]

Thanks Martin, very helpful.

 

Yes, there are lots of options on moving wagons - I have used a bicycle spoke poked through from behind the backscene.

 

I was just curious to see whether this method of propulsion could be used, but you've highlighted enough issues for the answer to be a 'No'.